Phi Mu and Phi Gamma Delta come to campus

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“There’s a saying like, if there’s something really bad, ‘I don’t wish it on anyone.’ Well, I wish being Greek upon everyone. I wish everyone could have the experience of going Greek, just because of how many great things stem from it,” Rick Seal, Interfraternity Council (IFC) president and member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, said.

Last week, Phi Mu sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity began recruitment for members to begin the process to establish chapters on NKU’s campus.

According to Kara Giesting, former Panhellenic Council (PHC) president and current liaison for Phi Mu, the new sorority and fraternity will create more opportunities for the Greek community to grow by having more people interested.

“If I was coming in [to recruitment] this year, I would wish I had the amount of options now that I didn’t in 2012,” Giesting said.

Overall, Seal said this addition to the Greek community only provides an even richer experience for students at NKU who choose to participate in Greek life, and that he is most excited about “adding to the [Greek] family.”

“Kim Vance and Adam Dralle (coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life) have done a fantastic job of trying to expand the Greek community,” Seal said. “More than one [fraternity] wanted to come to campus, but overall we felt that Fiji [Phi Gamma Delta] was the best one for that time.”

After the PHC and Kim Vance, director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, opened the extension process for new sororities to express interest in colonizing a chapter at NKU, three sororities gave presentations to the Greek life faculty and community to explain who they were as a chapter. The council then talked about which chapter would be the best fit for NKU, according to Giesting.

“We thought they [Phi Mu] would thrive on our campus, and we thought they would benefit our community as well,” Giesting said.

Similarly, the process with bringing Phi Gamma Delta to campus was based on which chapter would do best in the environment. According to Seal, it is important to introduce new chapters at a steady rate and not risk “overgrowing” the Greek community, making it difficult for a new chapter to survive.

“That’s what we’re aiming for, trying to get more Greek unity among all the Greeks on campus,” Joshua McSayles, president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) that oversees historical black greek letter organizations on campus, said. “Hopefully we all become more open minded to collaborating with people in other Greek fraternities and sororities.”

Giesting also said that the Panhellenic community is an important aspect of Greek life, or the bonding of all fraternities and sororities on campus.

“Nationally, Phi Mu is known to be very Panhellenic,” Giesting said. “We pledge and join our sorority, but we are very whole as a community.”

Recruitment for Phi Mu and Phi Gamma Delta immediately follows the Panhellenic Formal Recruitment for sororities at NKU, which occurred from Friday, Sept. 9 to Sunday, Sept. 11, according to the NKU website. The fall recruitment for fraternities began Sept. 7 and will go until Bid Day, Sept. 16, according to Clay Crouch, member of Theta Chi fraternity.

“As IFC president, I feel that we’re not only organizations, but we’re actually a part of something bigger,” Seal said. “I know for myself personally, going Greek has opened up so many doors and so many windows, so many opportunities.”